Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1912 — NOTES from MEADOWBROOK FARM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NOTES from MEADOWBROOK FARM

By Willam Pitt

It pays to"spray Intelligently. Look well now to the brood sows. Buckwheat is an egg producing feed. Half starve your hens, if you want ao eggs. Examine tfce collars *of your work horses often. Few horses can digest perfectly clear timothy hay. Hang a cabbage where the hens have to exercise to get it. milk tastes fine to the calf these, chilly mornings. Charcoal in the feed is good for correcting digestive troubles. Any ipcubator will do its work, and some brooders will undo it. The true dairy cow is easily affected by unfavorable conditions. A good horseman never trots a draft horse even when he has no load. The damand on the foal’s digestive system for nourishment is very great.

Don’t let your hens mope. Give them plenty of dry earth, ashes, chdff, etc. Sunshine is the only disinfectant absolutely free. Then let us use plenty of it. The real dairy cow turns her food into milk and butter-fat instead of meat. M hen you mark the date on an egg, have a good honest man handle the stamp. Save eggs from hens two or three old, rather than from pullets, for hatching. The live, ambitious, energetic poultryman makes it a point to hatch early chicks. If cream is too Tyarm, butter is very likely to come in soft lumps, with a greasy texture. Go over the nozzles of the sprayer and see that everything Is ready for the spring work. .. . / ■ With proper care and protection, clipping is an aid to the health and condition of a horse. In a case of twins one is often weaker than the other, and would die if not assisted to nourishment.

Ducks do not need water for swimming, but ’they must have plenty of absolutely clean drinking water. There is more fat lost in the skim milk through slow turning of the separator than through fast turning. Have patience with the lambs. A lamb saved now will be a flve-dollar bill in your pocket Jater in the year. ' i Lambs should have milk within a few minutes of birth, and if not able should have quiet and quick assistance. Don’t think that a calf which is fed regularly on milk does not need water. Milk is a food and does not quench thirst. Two parts corn and 1 part each of wheat and oats fed in a litter make a well balanced morning feed for tne layers. The open range is best for young turkeys, but they must not be allowed out during a shower or before the grass Is dry.

There this to say for the fruit tree peddler: If it were not for him many a farm would have little or «o fruit on the place. New York’s butter bill for one.year at retail prices amounts to $53,000,000. The cheese bill for the same time is $12,000,000. In building new quarters for swine the foundations should be made permanent and the floors double, and wind and water proof. In setting out peach trees no side branches need be left. They may be cut back to a "whip.” With apples and pears only year-old wood should be cut back. Can you handle the ax well? Then have one of those roosters for dinner next Sunday. Get them out of the flock. They are a nuisance to the laying hens.